Last week, the World Bank warned of the potential for a new financial crisis – one worse than the GFC.
Of course, it may not happen (and I’m sure we’re all hoping it won’t). But if we do begin to see a downturn in economic demand, businesses will once again be looking for internal measures to improve their bottom line.
This means one of two things: cutting costs or improving productivity. Technology is a powerful weapon for both, and I’ve blogged before about how you can use IT to reduce costs. This time around, I want to look at the productivity side of the equation – how businesses can best think about and use IT as a productivity tool.
Automate your business
For most business tasks, the general rule is that it doesn’t cost much if a machine is doing it for you.
Whether you’re processing sales or managing your supply chain, reducing the “human time” you need to invest in executing tasks not only makes them faster, but allows you to work more productively elsewhere.
A well-designed Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is key here – performing the grunt work that will help you to productively manage everything from inventory to financials and payroll management.
Make sure that yours is doing as much for you as it can.
